Division of Organic Coatings and Plastics Chemistry: Preprints

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J. KENNETH CRAVER

66

Division of Organic Coatings and Plastics Chemistry: Preprints-Advantages and Problems* By J. KENNETH CRAVER Monsanto Chemical Co., St. Louis 77, M o Received August 10, 1962

The Division of Organic Coatings and Plastic Chemistry began life as a section in the year 1924. I t achieved divisional status in 1928, under the name of Division of Paint, Varnish and Plastics Chemistry. I n 1952 the name was changed to the Division of Paint, Plastics and Printing Ink Chemistry, and in 1960 to the current designation. The first regular publication of this division was called “Briefs of Papers to be Presented.” This was sent to the members of the division during the years 1940 to 1943. I n 1944 the division began preprinting papers in full in advance of their presentation a t the national meetings. This year’s volume is number 22 in the series. During the years, the membership of the division has grown from approximately 500 in 1940, to more than 1,600 in 1961 (as shown in Fig. 1.). Beginning in 1947 this division sponsored the High Polymer Forum which led to the formation of the separate division of Polymer Chemistry in 1951. This accounts for the dip in the membership growth curve during the years 1951 to 1964. With nearly twenty years of experience in publishing preprints, this operation has become an integral part of our division. Our members expect it and our officers feel that it is worth the time and effort involved.

1-

2noo

MEMBERSHIP 1940 - 1 9 6 0

-

1500

D i v i s i o n of O r g a n i c C o a t i n g s and Plastics

1000

500

1

’Presented before the Dlvleion of Chemical Literature. ACS Vational Rleetinx. Atlantic C i t v . U .J.. September 10,1962.

What function does the Organic Coatings and Plastics Preprint booklet serve? First of all, it provides the members of this division with advance copies of the papers to be presented. We feel that this has increased the attendance a t our divisional meetings and has stimulated and encouraged discussion of papers during the meetings. We try to print and distribute the preprint booklet so that it can be in the member’s hands a t least a week or two in advance of the national meeting. This gives anyone planning to come to our meetings the opportunity t o review the papers and choose those he wishes to attend, and to prepare for comment and discussion with the author if he desires. Secondly, we know that the preprint booklet has encouraged ACS members to join our division who might otherwise not have belonged. Only about 2 0 7 of the membership of the American Chemical Society belong to any of the divisions. The remaining 8 0 5 must feel that there is nothing to be gained by affiliating with a division. Our preprint booklet has been a powerful inducement for members to join our division and participate in its activities. Some preprint booklets are on sale a t the door of our meeting room a t the national meetings, and prospective purchasers are always encouraged to join the division. We will sell the booklet to anyone but we prefer t o encourage prospective purchasers to join u p and be a part of our division. Finally, this preprint booklet serves as a record of the contribution of our divison to our profession over the past twenty years. As the chairman of this symposium has indicated, there is not enough space in the regular American Chemical Society Journals for all of the papers presented before all of the divisons. Many authors must either see their papers go unpublished, or see them published in non-society journals of limited distribution. During the war years there were no national meetings because of restrictions placed upon private travel. During this time our preprint booklet was issued as a “Meeting in Print,” and contains the papers which were submitted to our division, reviewed and accepted, and which would have been presented a t a national meeting had circumstances permitted. Thus, this preprint booklet is the only continuous record of the papers which have been accepted for presentation for our division for the past twenty years. We are able to supply this service to our members a t a comparatively low cost. Our divisional dues are four

PREPRINTS OF THE POLYMER CHEMISTRY DIVISION

moved recently. We have never attempted to support our publication by advertising, and we have always managed to stay within our budget for printing and distributing the preprint booklet and still show a small profit to the division each year. Full files of these preprints are maintained a t the John Crerar Library in Chicago, the New York Public Library and the Chemists’ Club of h’ew York. In addition many of our industrial libraries bind and index this booklet. I t is not indexed by Chemical Abstracts as a matter of editorial policy. I t has been copyrighted as a publication of the American Chemical Society since 1954. There are problems in publishing a preprint booklet. These are mostly problems of persuading an author to get his manuscript in on time. legibly typed according to ‘our requirements. T h e officers of this division must undertake the responsibility of reviewing and assembling the papers and seeing that all of the printing deadlines are met so that the members receive their preprint booklets well in advance of the national meetings. All of the officers feel that these problems are small in comparision to the rewards of a growing membership, a healthy treasury and the sense of accomplishment that the preparation of‘ this publication provides. I wish to acknowledge the help and advice of several present and past officers of the Division of Organic Coatings and Plastics Chemicals: Allen Alexander. J. K. Wise. E. R. Mueller, George Somerville, and Robert Helmreich.

dollars per year and for this amount a member receives a Spring and a Fall preprint, mailed to him prior to the appropriate national mee1;ing. T o keep our publication costs a t a minimum we require authors to submit their complete manuscript typewritten on special paper (which we supply), with photographs, graphs and line drawings prepared in accordance with our special instructions. The manuscript is reviewed by the chairman of the session involved and by a member of the executive committee of the division who is appointed t o work with the chairman. Papers which are accepted for presentation are assembled by the secretary of the division. the pages numbered by hand and this copy given t o the printer for reproduction. Our standard preprint booklet is 8.5 x 5.5 inches, by approximately three hundred and fifty pages. I t is printed on sixteen pound opaque stock and bound in 65 pound cover stock. These covers formerly were grey but beginning in 1962 they are yellow with the ACS emblem prominently displayed. F’rinting usually takes about two weeks from the time copy is received by the printer. Currently we print about twenty-two hundred copies per issue. These cost us approximately $1.50 per copy printed, bound and mailed to the members. Extra copies have been sold for 62.50 each to members of the division or $3.00 to non-members of the divison. For a number of years we were limited by American Chemical Society rules to printing a number not exceeding 13OCrof our membership. This restriction has been re-

Preprints of ACS Polymer Chemistry Division-Advantages By CHESTER

67

K.

and Problems’”

ROSENBAUM

Research and Development Division, Plastics Department,

E. I, du

Pant de Nemours 8 Co., Wilmington, Delaware Received August 22, 1962

How Our Preprints Originated.-Our Preprints were started in answer to a demand from the members of our Polymer Chemistry Division. Our Division Chairman, Frank Mayo, early in 1959 asked me, as an informal committee of one. t o scout for Dossible new activities. I sent out about 50 letters to representative members suggesting a couple of ideas, and asking for their comments and suggestions. I receivrd back 30 replies with a variety of ideas for new activities. With the assistance of John Howsman and Harold Stpurlin, we then grouped these ideas into a series of 24 questions under the following broad areas: ( a ) Type of Meetings, (b) Stimulate Educational Activities, (c) Sponsor Publications and (d) Other Ideas. We then mailed this questionnaire in June, 1959, to our 1000 divisional members. We received back 226 replies. The voting on the questions pertaining to Preprints was as follows.

Questionnaire Sent to Members

1.

Require full manuscripts for all papers SO t h a t Preprints may be mailed in advance of meetings. (Costs in other Divisions are about $1.50 t o $2.00 per meeting-and thus would require t h a t our dues be increased.)

A.

B. C. 2.

3. 4.

Require manuscripts for general papers only Require manuscripts for symposium papers on!y Require manuscripts for symposium papers only a t option of t h e Chairman If Preprints are furnished, shorten time for oral presentation and increase discussion time. Reduce number of papers accepted for presentation (note c-c and kind) Increase time available for discussion

Yes 130

No 5s

21

53

36

41

38

27

134

48

68 144

95 33